Committed
by DezoPenguin
Summary: It's boyfriend trouble for Mai! She's spent her high school years balanced between Yuuichi Tate and Reito Kanzaki, but the situation is starting to wear on all three of them as feelings are starting to deepen and change. Sooner or later a decision will have to be made, but can Mai find the courage to commit at last, and if so, to whom? (Duran and Kiyohime's Omake Theater setting)
1. Chapter 1

_A/N: Readers of my "Duran and Kiyohime's Omake Theater" stories will notice that as I've moved along in the series, time has been passing slowly (and intermittently, and not always in a strictly linear direction). One of the ongoing subplots hanging around the background has been Mai's love life, so for Valentine's Day 2015, I'm beginning a short series to settle that matter! It's a three-parter, posting every other week, so the final part will post, conveniently enough, on White Day._

~X X X~

"Okay, so I have dinner with Reito at seven-thirty, and it's supposed to be formal," Mai Tokiha mused, going over her schedule in her mind. Since she was currently clinging to the side of a rock face, fingertips clenched around small handholds and boot-tips driven into tiny crevices, her next thought was eminently logical: "What was I _thinking_?"

"Mai, did you say something?" Yuuichi Tate's voice called down from about five feet above her and two to the left.

"Sorry; just talking to myself."

"Okay. We're almost to the top, though, so there's just a little more to go. You still doing okay?"

Kagutsuchi flapped up next to her and gave her a concerned "mrow," a sound that was more like whalesong than either the dragon or phoenix that he appeared to be a hybrid of.

"I'm fine, guys, really," she said with a laugh. "I can do this."

"Okay. Lemme know when you're ready."

"Un-huh." Mai took a couple of deep breaths, then set herself. "All right; I'm good."

Tate gave her a thumbs-up, grinning, then turned back to the rock face and started up. Mai did the same, pushing up with her feet in a burst of energy, reaching for the next handhold until she could close her grip around it. The muscles in her arms and legs burned as she hauled herself up, taking it one at a time, another handhold, then another, until at last she'd made it up to close her right hand over the top of the cliff face. She stretched with her left hand and Tate caught it, hauling her up to stand beside him.

"I did it!" Mai crowed.

"Darned right," her boyfriend agreed, giving her a big squeeze.

"Ugh, Yuuichi, I'm all sweaty!"

He smirked at her.

"You think that I care about that?" he said, and kissed her soundly. She leaned into it, enjoying the solidity of his form against her, the roughness of his slightly chapped lips. It felt good to be held like that, the urgent pressure of his hands and mouth telling her that there was no artifice to it—her underarms were soaked, her hair was matted under her helmet, and she had a smear of rock dust down one cheek, but none of that bothered or affected him in the least.

"Yuuichi..." she murmured as she broke the kiss.

He smiled at her, a grin that stretched almost from ear to ear.

"Take a look," he said, turning her so they stood shoulder to shoulder, his arm around her, facing out over the cliff's edge. The Fuuka countryside stretched out before them, the lush green of the spring forest, and beyond it the white marble buildings and red roofs of Fuuka Academy and all the way out to the sparkling water of the bay. Mai sucked in her breath.

"It's beautiful," she said, exhaling the words. "I...I don't know how long it's been since I've seen something like this. That's so amazing, Yuuichi."

"Eh-heh-heh," he chuckled. "I kind of thought you might like it. I'd been meaning to show you for a while, but..."

"But what?"

"Well, I wasn't sure you'd like rock climbing. I think a big part of the fun is working hard to get up here. That makes it a really cool thing, like we've earned it as a reward, y'know? It's not the same if we'd just hiked up the back side of the mountain."

Mai thought about it. She was tired, sweaty, and muscles she hadn't put stress on in a while were telling her that she'd probably regret this in the morning. But at the same time, she'd had fun, getting out in the fresh air, and it felt really good to have conquered the cliff.

"Yeah," she said. "Yeah, you're right."

It felt almost nostalgic, looking down at the campus like this, and after a couple of seconds' thought Mai realized why: it reminded her of two years ago, of the HiME Festival and how she'd been able to fly, carried aloft by her Elements. There wasn't a lot that she missed from those frightening, difficult days, but the amazing feeling of soaring through the air like a bird was definitely something that she'd love to have back.

She realized now that she hadn't spent much time at all in high places since that time. In fact, Mai thought, she couldn't remember once in those two years when she'd just looked down from anything higher than a second-floor window—not a cliff, or the library spire, or a mountain road, or the bridge, nothing. She'd never thought about it, but now wondered if she'd been avoiding it, somehow.

If true, she thought, she was even happier that her boyfriend had taken the time to bring her. She didn't want to have any lingering regrets over anything any more, not over anything or anyone.

"Thanks for inviting me, Yuuichi," she said. "I had a lot of fun this afternoon."

"Well, I can't take all the credit, much as I'd like to. Right, Kagutsuchi?"

The CHILD made a curious noise, cocking his head to one side.

"C'mon, you two remember, don't you? You made this cliff, two years ago. You told me that fire on the mountain was you, right?"

Mai blushed. She remembered the incident, all right. It was when she'd first summoned Kagutsuchi, when she'd seen—and fought—her first Orphan. And when Kagutsuchi's fiery breath had set the forest on fire, lighting up the night and creating an incident that had been the talk of the school the next week.

"Wait, this happened then, too? Geez."

Kagutsuchi gave an innocent whistle.

"Yeah, it's too bad that we can't tell people. We could call this place 'Mai's Ridge' or something like that. Wouldn't it be cool to have a natural feature named after you?"

"No, it would not!" Mai yelped. "It'd be embarrassing. To have something named for you because you blew the side off a mountain is _not_ every girl's dream!"

"I bet Mikoto would love it," Tate said defensively.

He had a point. Mai's catlike roommate would probably take people on tours to proudly show it off. Mai really didn't want to let Tate off the hook that easily, but the mental image made it impossible for her to repress a snicker.

"Or Midori," she agreed. "I bet she's leveled a hill or two in her career."

Tate laughed. "Probably! She may be a history teacher, but I think she's more likely to make it then tell it."

"You might be right."

She leaned into him again, relaxing once more, letting a couple of minutes drift by contentedly, until he started to shuffle his feet. Tate was the kind of boy who liked to _do_ things; there was only so long that he could stand and stare at a view. Appreciating that he hadn't said anything, Mai let him off the hook.

"Well, I guess we ought to get going."

"I guess so," he struck at the bait, making her grin inwardly. The separated and unclipped the various safety ropes and harnesses, stowed them, then shouldered their packs and set off down the trail. They'd gotten about a hundred yards along when Tate spoke up again.

"Hey, Mai?"

"Yes?"

"I was wondering...would you maybe like to go grab something to eat after this? Nothing fancy, on the spur of the moment, I mean, but maybe like a burger at Linden Baum or something?"

Mai's face fell.

"I'm sorry, Yuuichi, but I can't."

"This isn't because I made fun of you for blowing stuff up, is it?"

"No! No, it's not that," she hastily assured him. "It's just that, well, I've already got plans with Reito tonight."

"Oh. Kanzaki, huh?"

"Uh-huh. He set up the date with me two weeks ago."

"Really? What is it, some fancy-pants place?"

"He's taking me to _Maison Blanc et Noir_ in Tsukimori. The grand reopening is tonight."

"Damn, I'm amazed he could even get a reservation; they'll be packed." His face fell, a not uncommon occurrence when he was discussing Mai's _other_ boyfriend. Then he brightened as a thought struck him. "Hey, wait a sec. You knew you had all that going on and you still agreed to go rock climbing with me?"

"It sounded like fun!" Mai defended her decision. "And I _did_ have a good time, so obviously I knew what I was doing. Even if getting showered and changed and primped and preened is all going to take forever and I don't have time for this..."

"I don't get it," Tate groused. "What's the point of going through all that work just to go to some snooty place where you pay three times the price for half the amount of food?"

Mai stiffened her shoulders.

"_Sometimes_, a girl wants to be treated like she's a princess," she told him archly, "with chivalry and consideration."

"Is that what you want, Mai? For me to make a big fuss over you? To prance around like I was some snobby little git in a fancy suit who holds his pinky out while he drinks tea?"

"That's not what I—"

"We're like a month from graduation, Mai. I am who I am, and I'm not going to change that."

"I didn't ask you to change," Mai shot back. "I just said you could try understanding that it's nice to feel elegant and sophisticated for a change!"

Tate rolled his eyes.

"Hey, if you want someone who'll get all dressed up in a monkey suit and fake being all suave, then maybe you _ought_ to go out with Kanzaki. The guy's so slick he drips oil, but hey, he looks good in a tux and I guess that's what counts."

"Gah!" Mai yanked at her hair. "Seriously, can you not tell the difference between having some class and being a pompous stuffed shirt? There is a middle ground, you know! Why are you acting like a jerk all of a sudden?"

Tate stopped in his tracks.

"I'm the jerk? Hey, maybe I am a little short-tempered, but it's not easy to hear about how the girl I'm out on a date with has to hurry home so she can go out with some other guy and watch him open his wallet."

"Are you calling me a golddigger? That I'm just using Reito because of what he can give me?" She stepped right up to him so that her head was almost touching his chin. "Because if that's what you think—"

"No, no, that's not—" he backpedaled frantically. He knew that he'd firmly stepped in it, but at the same time he wasn't willing to just concede the point, either. "It's just that we've been going out for almost two full years now, and if stuff like fancy French dinners and concerts and visits to art museums are what you want out of a boyfriend, well...maybe I'm not the guy that you want to be with."

"What? Yuuichi, of course I want to be with you."

"Do you? Like I said, it's been two years. Sure, we've gone on dates, and we've kissed, but that's all."

"If you want credit for not trying to do more than cop a feel—"

"That's not it! I'm not going to say I don't dream about that stuff, 'cause sure, you're the girl I love and you're cute and stacked besides. But I mean, after all this time, you've never said 'I love you,' and you're still seeing Kanzaki, too. I mean, what kind of a relationship is it when you've got to hustle to squeeze in time for a date because you've got to make it to a date with someone else?"

"You've never complained about it before." Made snarky comments and gotten in arguments with Reito, yes, like rams butting heads in the pasture, but never taken it out on Mai.

"At first, there wasn't anything to complain about. I mean, Kanzaki had made it clear he was still interested, and you didn't just tell him to go fly a kite. If I wanted you to pick me, I had to win you over fair and square. But you've been stringing us along for all this time, Mai, and I'm getting tired of it. I can't force you to make up your mind, I know, but...you can't force me to keep chasing you, either."

With that parting shot, he spun on his heel and started off down the hill again.

"Yuuichi?" Mai called, but he didn't stop. She went after him, but it soon became clear that he was going as fast as his longer legs could take him without actually running, and if Mai was going to catch him, _she'd_ have to run. "Yuuichi, wait!"

But he didn't, and Mai had to walk back down herself, wondering just when everything had gone wrong.

~X X X~

"Mai, you're back!"

The happy squeal from Mikoto was immediately followed by the black-haired girl tossing her book aside, springing over the back of the couch, braids flying, and pouncing on Mai, squashing her face square into Mai's breasts.

"Hi, Mikoto."

"You smell sweaty," her roommate said, wrinkling her nose.

"We did go rock climbing. That's pretty hard exercise."

"Oh, I like rock climbing. Grandpa had me do it all the time as part of my training."

"I bet you were pretty good at it."

"Mm-hm, of course!" She let Mai go. "I don't think _ani-ue_ likes sweat, though."

"I'm not sure that Reito sweats at all. But you're right; I need a shower."

Mikoto was Reito's little sister, but surprisingly she never took his side in the competition for Mai's affections, instead remaining a neutral party.

"Mai, are you all right? You smell sad."

Three years ago, that comment would have surprised Mai, but by now she'd gotten used to the feral girl. Mikoto had been raised in isolation by her family to serve her brother—who'd himself been groomed as the host of the Obsidian Prince—as his right hand. But where Reito had been accustomed to the environment of high society, Mikoto had been virtually isolated from human contact outside of her training regimen. It occasionally made her social interactions...unusual.

It also made it hard to hide things from her.

"I...kind of had a fight with Yuuichi."

"What did he do?"

Her assumption made Mai have to repress a chuckle, but she managed to remain honest. "I'm not sure that he really did anything."

"He should apologize anyway. He's the boy, so that's his job."

That time, Mai did give in, giggling.

"You've been spending too much time hanging out with Nao again, haven't you?"

"I like Nao. She's sneaky, but she'd honest, too. She'll say things other people are too nice to admit."

"That's Nao, all right."

"So? What was it?"

Mai sighed.

"He got mad that I'm going out with Reito this evening. He thinks that I should just pick one of them already instead of waffling back and forth."

"But you don't want to?"

"I don't know. I mean...I'm not sure how I feel. I think about Yuuichi, and I don't want to lose him, but I can't say that I want to lose Reito either." She sighed. "I want what Natsuki has with Shizuru, Mikoto. I want a relationship where I can look at the person I'm with and _know_ that even when we have fights or disagreements or I think their family is made up of idiots, that I still want to be with them and see the trouble through to the other side."

Her own younger brother had found someone like that, her best friends had, her classmate and fellow HiME Akane Higurashi had...but Mai, with not one but two great guys interested in her, still found herself on the outside looking in.

_Is it me?_ she thought. It had been two years, after all, since she'd agreed to give both Tate and Reito a chance to date her and win her over. And yet, here she was, as indecisive as she'd been back as a first-year when she'd been out on a few dates with Reito but couldn't get Tate out of her head.

She couldn't shake the question all the way through her preparations, through showering and shampooing and drying her hair to getting dressed in a sleek black sheath dress that fell to just above her knees and had a scooped neckline that showed off just a bit of cleavage, enough to be a little inviting without making a display of it. She put on a thin gold chain with a garnet pendant that had been a Christmas gift from Reito a few months ago, and simple gold hoop earrings. Her makeup was understated, a bit of color around the eyes and cheeks, with coral pink lip gloss instead of red. Surveying herself in the full-length mirror on the back of the bedroom door, she turned one way and then the other.

"Not bad, if I do say so myself!" she decided, and headed out. Mikoto had reclaimed her spot on the couch, curled up with her book and a bowl of snacks, but looked up at once at the click of the door handle.

"Oooh, Mai, you look great!" She gave her the thumbs-up sign. "You're going to knock _ani-ue_'s eyes out!"

Mai laughed.

"Thanks, Mikoto. There's leftovers on the second shelf of the refrigerator, so you can have those for dinner if you want. The containers are microwave-safe, so you just need to loosen the lids."

Kagutsuchi and Miroku both looked up from whatever they were doing (it appeared to be a board game involving several pieces and a squeaky toy) and stared at Mai.

"...And remember to follow the instructions. Fumi said that if you blow up another microwave we'll have to pay for the replacement out of our own pockets."

Mikoto winced. Mai wasn't in "save every penny to pay for her brother's heart operation" mode any more (thank you, Kazahana Mashiro!), but a lifetime's habits of frugality weren't just casually tossed aside. Mikoto had definitely learned not to tempt fate by being the cause of large household expenses!

"I'll be careful, Mai; I promise!" she assured her solemnly.

"All right, then. Have fun! Hey, what is it that you're reading, anyway?"

"It's called _Night Whispers._ It's a supernatural romance."

"Oh, really?" There was a pretty substantial cottage industry in those.

"Uh-huh! It's about a girl who finds out that she's secretly the daughter of the leader of a powerful magical tradition, and now she's being courted by a vampire prince as well as her human childhood friend."

"I didn't know you liked romance stories."

"Well, Aoi recommended it. But she did say that there were lots of magical fights and stuff, and she's right there. It's almost as good as the fights we had when we were HiME!"

Miroku and Kagutsuchi both looked up, making quite offended noises.

"I meant the humans," Mikoto told them.

"And she did say 'almost,'" Mai added.

Mollified, the CHILDs settled back down to what they were doing.

"Are they...playing shogi?"

"Uh-huh! Duran taught them when you and Natsuki were hanging out last weekend!" She frowned and stage-whispered, "I think Miroku tries to cheat sometimes, though."

The oni looked up at his mistress, trying to be the picture of innocence. He failed miserably because, well, he was an oni. Trying to sneak a lance back onto the board when the ringing doorbell distracted Kagutsuchi didn't help his case, either.

Idly, Mai wondered what the squeaky toy was for.

"Reito!" Mai exclaimed happily on opening the door. "You're right on time."

"And you're beautiful," he said, extending a bouquet of coral pink roses.

Like Tate, Reito Kanzaki was tall and handsome, but otherwise he was a study in opposites compared to his rival. Where Tate's good looks were rugged, with a long face and strong chin, Reito was almost beautiful, elegance rather than strength. His hair was neatly styled and combed rather than spiky, jet black rather than sandy with hints of auburn. His manners were polished instead of rough, his black turtleneck and charcoal slacks and blazer immaculate, matching neatly with the same level of formality as Mai's outfit as if he'd known in advance what she'd be wearing.

"Thanks, Reito. Just let me get these in some water."

"Of course."

Mai stepped back and let him in.

"_Ani-ue_!" Mikoto called while Mai darted off to the kitchen in search of something suitable. Thankfully, with two boyfriends, she'd figured out pretty fast that she needed to own vases and had gotten a couple.

"Good evening, Mikoto."

"It sounds like you and Mai are going to have a lot of fun!"

He chuckled.

"If you like, I could take you some afternoon when you're free."

"Nah, that's okay. Fancy restaurants never give you enough. And if we went for lunch, I'd miss out on Mai's food!"

"Well, obviously we can't have that; Mai's cooking is the best."

"Mmn!"

"Flatterer," Mai called, arranging the flowers. "But no matter how you butter me up, I'm not going to cancel the date and stay in and cook for you two."

"Awww."

"That sounds like a good idea for Mikoto's birthday, though," Reito suggested.

"Or for tomorrow!" Mikoto countered.

Reito grinned, an expression that was all too close to the smirk that Natsuki constantly assured him of having. "Shall we make it a proper family dinner tomorrow night and humor our cute little sister, then, Mai?"

Mai wanted to roll her eyes and make some kind of lighthearted response, but couldn't quite do it. The sticking point was how he'd said "our" little sister instead of "my." Now, it was quite true that Mai and Mikoto were as close as sisters—indeed, one of the reasons Mai had clung to her so easily was that Mikoto offered her the chance to redo that sibling relationship without all the baggage and history that went along with Mai's relationship with Takumi.

Of course, as it turned out Mikoto came with her own baggage and issues, but by then she was inextricably a part of Mai's life.

But that wasn't why Reito's words got to her. The problem there was the underlying implication, that subtle little fillip playing beneath the surface like with so much of what he said: the suggestion of _if you marry me, she really will be your little sister._ The phrase "proper family dinner" fed that implication as well—a boyfriend was hardly what Mai would call family, at least not as a default, even though he was Mikoto's family.

It was hard to engage in lighthearted banter about remarks like that.

When she glanced over at Reito, he was still smiling.

"We can talk about that later."

"Aww, but Mai."

"_Later_, Mikoto."

"Okay," Mikoto pouted.

"Be good, and I'll see you when I come home. Kagutsuchi, you behave for Mikoto. And Miroku, move your silver general back where he was before Reito came in." She set the vase down on the table while Kagutsuchi demonstrated the purpose of the toy by picking it up and bonking Miroku with it, the loud squeak venting his frustration.

"Shall we go, then?" Reito offered, extending a hand to her. She took it and he led her out. They walked downstairs to where his car was parked, a sleek silver Infiniti. He opened the door for her, and in a few moments they were on their way.


	2. Chapter 2

That was a great meal, Reito." Mai sighed happily as the server took their plates.

"I'm glad you liked it."

"Okay, what are you grinning at this time?" She waggled a spoon at him. "That's definitely a smirk."

He held up his hands.

"Pax, Mai. I just like watching you eat."

Mai blinked.

"You what?"

"I like watching you eat. Is that so strange?"

"Honestly, it sounds pretty weird. But I'll hear you out, so tell me, what do you like about it?"

Reito smiled.

"It's the professionalism."

Mai blinked again. It seemed to be that kind of conversation. This time, though, she didn't have to prompt Reito to continue.

"You're a really good cook yourself, and when you eat food that someone else has prepared, you don't just eat it. I can see you weighing it on your tongue, your mind breaking down what works and what doesn't, what ingredients, spices, and cooking methods might have been used, and considering what you might have done differently if you were preparing the dish, or conversely what lessons you might take from it to make your own cooking better. I enjoy watching that expertise in action; it's so different from the other people who either eat as the rules of etiquette suggest, or just shovel it in with gusto." He smiled, then added, "Of course, as my sister shows, your cooking is the kind that makes 'just shovel it in' hard to resist. It's so good that the mind immediately demands more."

"Sometimes I wonder if Mikoto has a medical condition that makes ramen an addictive drug for her."

"That's merely your brilliance at work. And, of course, the added benefit of a connection with a person that she loves. That makes everything taste better."

Mai blushed, doubly so because of what Reito was implying about himself.

"But that is a discussion, and a meal, to be savored at a different time. The decision before us now is, do you want to have dessert? The chocolate mousse cake was always excellent here."

While Mai was not one of those women who'd say that the road to her heart was paved with chocolate, that didn't stop her mouth from watering.

"I don't know if I should..."

"But Mai, you know why the portion sizes of _haute cuisine_ are so small, don't you? It's so you still have room when you're finished to indulge yourself freely."

It reminded her so much of what Mikoto had said that she giggled.

"See, there? It makes you happy and you haven't even tasted it yet."

"I know, but I really shouldn't. I eat too many sweets as it is."

"It's up to you, but I have to say that I've never seen you overindulge at all."

_That's because it makes me uncomfortable to just dig in and pig out around you!_ Mai thought. It was something she'd actually commiserated about with Natsuki a year and a half ago: Reito and Shizuru both were so well-mannered (and so _effortless_ about it) that it made Mai and Natsuki feel like barbarian clodhoppers at the Imperial court by comparison. And while Mai's best friend had gotten over her self-consciousness ("You share a house as a couple for two years and you stop putting them on a pedestal that way. Nobody looks elegant plunging a toilet."), Mai really hadn't, probably because she just didn't have the intimacy with Reito that Natsuki had with Shizuru.

"The Kanzaki family secretly has a controlling interest in the chocolate market, doesn't it?"

"You've found out my secret, Mai," he chuckled.

"Well...I have to do my part to help out my boyfriend's family fortune, so I'll go ahead and order the chocolate mousse cake, and to hell with the calories."

"They're happy calories. They don't count."

"Now, there's the difference between you and Yuuichi," Mai grumbled. "He'd probably have said something about how it didn't matter because the extra weight would go straight to my boobs."

Reito arched an eyebrow, curious.

"Although as a general rule I'm more than happy to hear you denigrate my rival for your affections, that particular complaint sounded more generic than most. Are you fighting with him?"

"Yes. No. Maybe?"

"That does seem to cover the possible answers."

He made a small gesture with his right hand, a kind of shooing motion, which only belatedly Mai realized meant that he was signaling the waiter to stay back and not approach the table so that Mai could finish what she was saying.

If she wanted to finish.

It was one thing to complain about the boys to Mikoto, Natsuki, Chie, or Aoi. They were neutral parties, as it were. It was something else again to talk to Reito about Tate or Tate about Reito, about serious things. And yet, Mai found herself unable to hold back. Was it Reito's manner, hus smooth charms? No, that was too facile, too simplistic an answer. The simple fact was, sometimes to understand a guy, you needed another guy's perspective, even if that guy was about as different from the other as two men could be.

_But are they that different, really?_

That was an odd thought to have.

"I went rock climbing with him this afternoon, and we got into a bit of a...I don't even know if you can call it a fight, but he definitely got angry with me."

Reito's face grew serious. No, not serious, more...flat. Like he had drawn a shutter down over it, cutting off any emotions. It was his "business face," as Mai thought of it, the one he used when casual friendliness would be inappropriate for the situation.

"Oh?"

She was a bit put off by the sudden change in expression, but nodded.

"He asked me out for dinner after we were done, and of course I turned him down since I'd already made plans with you. That made him kind of mad, and I don't understand why."

"Well, you are both graduating in another month."

"What does that have to do with anything?"

"I presume that you're still intending to attend Fuuka University?"

"Uh-huh." They'd talked about this before; the university had a number of programs in which it excelled nationally, and Mai could attend for free under the terms of her Kazahana Scholarship. "I'm thinking of double-majoring, with a two-year trade program as a chef and a four-year degree in business administration with a concentration in small business management."

"You're looking to open your own restaurant, aren't you?"

"It seems like a good idea, to start a career in something that I enjoy, and I think I'd prefer the independence of owning my own place instead of working at someone else's."

"It sounds like you've thought this through."

She nodded.

"Well, it is my future, so I need to take it seriously. But what does that have to do with Yuuichi?"

Reito pinched the bridge of his nose, like he was getting a headache.

"It's been two years since the HiME Festival, Mai. That's two years that Tate and I have been courting you. I'm sure you appreciate that a long-distance relationship can be hard. And it's twice as hard when you aren't even sure what that relationship is. I'm sure that as time gets closer for him to make his break from high school at last, he'd becoming more and more concerned with the state of his life. I can't say that I haven't had some of the same thoughts, though of course I have two more years before my own university graduation."

Mai couldn't help but frown.

"Reito..."

"Look, Mai, no one is trying to push you into something that you don't want to do. But it's been nearly two full years now. If you don't know by now which one of us you want to date, then really, Mai, are you ever going to know? And just how long do you expect the two of us to put our own lives on hold waiting for you to come to a decision?"

"Are you giving me an ultimatum here, then?" Mai shot back. Despite what he'd just said, it felt like she was being pushed into a corner, and she didn't like the feeling one bit.

"I'm saying that when I learn that my girlfriend was so excited for her upcoming dinner date with me that she went and squeezed in a date with another man just before it, that I can understand some of what Tate is feeling."

There was a coldness in his gaze and his voice was stern, leaving Mai no doubt that he meant what he was saying—and that he was more than a little annoyed by it.

"Both you and Yuuichi seem to think that I have to run my dating schedule by you. It would be one thing if I had accepted an invitation from some third boy, but you both know very well that I'm going to be going out on dates with the both of you."

"Are you?"

"What does _that_ mean? I thought that was what you were getting mad about!"

Reito's gaze narrowed.

"I'm not getting mad, Mai."

_You could have fooled me._

If there was something that kept getting on her nerves about Reito, it was exactly this problem: he wouldn't let her _in_. There was always some piece of his emotions that he insisted on holding back and not letting her have. Sometimes it was something blatantly obvious, like now, and he was stonewalling her by refusing to talk about it. Other times it was something more enigmatic and she'd be left floundering, with no idea where she stood and what he wanted.

At least with Tate, when he didn't want to talk about his feelings Mai could trust that it was because he genuinely didn't know what was going on.

"I am concerned," Reito continued. He didn't raise his voice; it just became sharper, more clipped, biting off the ends of words more crisply. "I know that you're dating Tate as well as me. But sometimes, it doesn't feel like you're dating either one of us, that we're really little more to you than friends with rather tame, family-friendly benefits."

"That's not—" _How can he say that?_

"Isn't it? If your heart was really engaged, don't you think you'd have picked one of us by now? Just because we're not fully exclusive doesn't give you the right to keep stringing us along."

Mai clenched her fists in her lap.

"I'm not stringing you along!"

"Maybe you're not. I don't know. But it feels that way sometimes, and the longer this...whatever it is we have...goes on, the more it feels that way."

She wanted to jump up, to shout at him that it wasn't true, but she couldn't. Not in the middle of this expensive restaurant. She felt enough like a little kid playing dress-up as it was, without making a scene to attract every eye in the place. _Damn_ Reito for backing her into a corner like this!

"You're right about one thing," Mai said, forcing herself to keep her voice level. "This isn't a date any more. Take me home, Reito; I don't feel like staying for dessert after all."

~X X X~

It will be noted that Mai Tokiha had a temper. Many people missed this because she was generally a sweet, caring person. She was also a redhead who as a HiME had been able to hurl around walls and blasts of fire, which was truth in advertising.

This it was not _entirely_ out of character when she hurled her apartment door open with a scream of "_Men!_" The crash of the door on the wall combined with the shout so startled Mikoto that the cat-girl yelped in surprise and fell off the couch, her book flying to land at Mai's feet and her popcorn bowl unleashing puffy kernels everywhere to drift down like a cloud of buttery snowflakes.

"Mai?"

Mikoto waveringly rose to her feet like a shark surfacing from behind the couch. Her questioning voice might have been because she was asking Mai why she was so upset. Then again, it might have been a simple case of recognition, because the popcorn bowl had landed over her head. She removed her impromptu helmet.

"You scared me, Mai!"

"I'm sorry," Mai said, contrite. After all, Mikoto wasn't one of the three people (including herself in that count) that she was upset with.

"Did _ani-ue_ try something bad? Did he try to steal third base?"

Mai's gaze narrowed.

"I will eat my hat if you know what that means, Mikoto."

"You don't own a hat."

Mai just raised an eyebrow.

"Okay, I don't. Nao says it. But it's got something to do with sex, right?"

"Right. And no, Reito did not try to steal any bases; the only thing that happened was a kiss when he helped me out of the car at the restaurant and that was more like an intentional walk."

"Then what's wrong? You're home early _and_ mad."

Mai hung up her purse and sighed.

"He acted like Yuuichi."

Mikoto blinked.

"Wouldn't that make him get mad at himself?" she wondered. "He doesn't usually like that."

"Not this time."

Mai sighed. Her anger was starting to ebb thanks to Mikoto's antics, leaving a sense of resigned frustration. She bent over and picked up the book, which seemed to have escaped damage.

"He was just like Yuuichi was this afternoon. It was the exact same fight, only with less yelling."

"You mean, he wants you to pick him as a boyfriend, too?"

"Uh-huh. He said he thinks Yuuichi wants to know where he stands before he goes off to college. And that it bothers both of them that I can just arrange my schedule to make room instead of only thinking about the one I'm with. Yuuichi was mad that I ran off from being with him in time for my date with Reito, and Reito was mad that I made time for Yuuichi in the first place."

It was a measure of how drained she felt that she didn't pick up the spilled popcorn at once, but just swept aside a clear spot on the couch and flopped down. Mikoto hopped up next to her and Mai gave back her book.

"I just don't get it. I mean, I _do_ get it, they both want to date me. But it's been two years, now; they ought to be used to it. And why can't I pick one of them, anyway?"

"I don't know," Mikoto said. "I'd tell you how Kyoko picks her guy in the book, but I haven't got that far yet."

"Oh, that's easy. I could tell who she'll pick from the back cover."

Mikoto's eyes widened.

"Really? How?"

Mai leaned back on the couch.

"All love triangles in romance books are pretty much the same." She let her head lay against the top of the cushion. "One of the guys will be the dark and dangerous type. Maybe he's a vampire, or a demon, or a yakuza guy, or a rich billionaire or something like that if it's not a supernatural story. The point is that he's somebody that can take the heroine to a new world. He can expand her horizons, show her things she's never seen, swoop her off her feet with thrills and excitement. Only, he's also a little scary for her, because he's so different, alien to her. He thinks and feels different things from her. If she goes with him, she'll leave behind the world she knew, the familiar, the comfortable, everything that she's been up until then.

"On the other hand, the second guy will be grounded. He'll be responsible. He might be human, or if he's supernatural it'll be something like a werewolf that's close to nature, stable. He might be from her own social class. You said the second guy in your book was a childhood friend, so he's like three of those at once.

"The point is, one guy represents fantasy, magic, and dreams, while the other guy represents reality, stability, trust. Which one she picks will depend on the author's message. Maybe the author likes the fantasy, that a girl should reach for her dreams and the ordinary guy is boring, dull, holding her back from, doing what she wants and living the life she could have. Or it could be the other way around, that the fantasy guy is risky, irresponsible, something fake that can never really satisfy, while the grounded guy can give her something solid and real, true love that she can base her life on, and all those airy-fairy fantasies are just a teenager's dream. You can pretty much tell right from the start which way a story is going to go."

"Oh, so it's like you. _Ani-ue_ is the vampire and Tate is the childhood friend!"

Mai blinked.

"Yeah, I guess it sort of is. Wow, it's kind of lowering, really. A girl doesn't like to think that her life is so generic as that!"

"So which do you like? The fantasy guy or the reality guy?"

Mai sighed, then gave a rueful chuckle.

"Honestly, Mikoto?"

"Yeah?"

"I stopped reading those kind of books back when I was in junior high. I always thought it was kind of silly how they always ended up the same." She snorted, still a little disgusted with herself. "I never expected I'd end up living one. Maybe that's why I'm still here, two years later."

"Hmmm..." Mikoto pursed her lips, apparently giving the subject some intense thought. Given the person in question it was cutely endearing, and brought a smile to Mai's lips. It was a nice thought, a reminder that regardless of the way Mai's romantic life turned out—or, as weird as it even sounded to _think_ about it, _Mikoto's_ romantic future—that the bond between them would still be there. "But it's not that you want somebody else, right? You really do like Tate and _ani-ue_."

"I do," Mai agreed. "I have fun with both of them. But...they're right. This has gone on a lot longer than I thought it would. I figured it would be a few weeks, two or three months at the most, but definitely by the end of that first summer. But it just kept going on and on. And...it's not just the two of them."

"Oh? Who else?" Mikoto said, her puzzlement obvious.

"Me, Mikoto," Mai laughed. "It isn't just Yuuichi. I'm going to be graduating soon, too. And I...I want a real relationship. I see Natsuki with Shizuru, Akane with Kazuya, Chie with Aoi, even Ms. Yukariko with Mr. Ishigami, and I want what they have. Love, romance, passion. An adult relationship, not just kids going out."

"Adult?" Mikoto's eyes widened.

"That's not what I mean." Well, maybe it was, she thought, at least a little bit. She remembered how Yuuichi had kissed her after they'd climbed the cliff face, how it had felt and made her toes curl. And if Reito had wanted to steal...well, maybe not third, but she'd have let him take second base on defensive indifference. But that was just a sideshow, icing on the cake. She was ready for a real relationship, not two pale imitations of one.

She leaned forward, cupping her chin in her hands while resting her elbows on her knees.

"There's three people involved in this relationship, and none of us is satisfied with where it is now. If it were just the two of them, then I'd have my answer, and I'd let them go. But I want what they do, Mikoto."

"But which one do you like better?"

"I don't know! That's what makes it so hard."

"Even after two years? That does seem like it's an awfully long time. You ought to know them pretty well by now."

"I do. It's just that they're so different, like the boys in your book."

"But you said you thought those love triangles are stupid."

"They are! That doesn't help when I went and got myself into one anyway."

Mikoto scrunched up her face again, thinking hard. What she came up with actually surprised Mai.

"Why do you think they're stupid?"

"Love triangles, you mean?"

"Mmm-hm." Mikoto's head bobbed up and down. "I'm enjoying my book! I think it's fun. And you can't say it's not realistic because you're in a triangle right now. Even the magic part, sort of." Kagutsuchi whistled from his perch. "Though _ani-ue_ isn't a vampire. Though he did used to be possessed by the Obsidian Prince, so that sort of counts, even though a vampire would be lots cooler. Um, what was I saying?"

"You asked me why I thought that kind of love triangle was stupid."

"That was it! I thought that maybe if you thought about that, it would help you sort out which boy you wanted."

"That's actually a pretty good idea." After all, a triangle was just a pattern that reduced and defined people by the point they occupied, minimizing other facts of their character. If she could look outside that pattern by breaking its importance...

Mai smiled suddenly as she considered what it was that most bothered her about that pattern.

"You know, Mikoto? You were absolutely right."

~X X X~

_A/N: "They're happy calories. They don't count" is actually a line of my wife's. Hopefully, she won't mind me appropriating it for Reito! But hey, Reito is a semi-villainous guy, so he'd steal dialogue, right?_

_One thing I've noticed in a rather cursory evaluation of the material is that in American YA fiction, the love triangle tends to be resolved in favor of the "fantasy" candidate, while in anime (eg. _Escaflowne, Fuushigi Yuugi, _etc.), the opposite seems true and the exotic bishonen will lose every time to the scruffy guy (not that there aren't vampire romances and the like, but those usually tend to be one-to-one instead of standard-form triangles). I'm not exactly sure what that says, if anything, about the respective cultures._


	3. Chapter 3

Convincing Tate and Reito to come over the next evening didn't prove to be hard; Mai just sent them a mail message reading, "We need to talk; can you come over at seven?" and they showed up. Getting them to be happy about each other's presence was harder.

"What's he doing here?" Tate was the first to ask.

"I needed to talk with both of you. Yesterday, you both said some things that were pretty important, and it's something that needs all three of us to talk over."

The boys glanced at each other, apparently curious about where Mai was going with this.

"Okay, then, but why is _she_ here?" Tate jerked a thumb towards Nao, who was leaning against the wall next to the door, arms folded across her chest.

"I was wondering about that myself," she put in. "If you're looking for advice on boys, come by the chapel. We're open all night unless Miyu's off blowing up some rival's factory for the squirt or something."

"I need you to keep an eye on Mikoto for me."

"Seriously?"

"This is private, so I need time alone."

"Aww," Mikoto pouted, "I wanted to see what happens!"

"I'll tell you all about it when you come back, I promise."

"Aw, that's no fun."

Mai turned back to Nao, pressing her palms together.

"Please, Nao, you see how it is. I need someone to keep her out of trouble or from getting bored."

"You sound like you're talking about your kid. Seriously, she's seventeen now. She ought to know what a sock on the doorknob means."

"Nao! That's not what I meant!"

Nao rolled her eyes.

"Fine, fine. All right, Mikoto, I guess I'm your babysitter tonight. Wanna go into Tsukimori with me and troll for muggers?"

"Yay!"

"That doesn't sound like a very nun-like activity," Reito pointed out.

"Hey, I'm going out in the world, performing beneficial work in encouraging the city to be a safer place. And I'm enlightening those poor sinners and lightening the burden on their souls by encouraging them to make charitable donations."

"Less the costs of collection, no doubt."

Nao shrugged.

"Hey, the whole vow of poverty thing leads to low wages."

"I'm just going to pretend I didn't hear any of this," Mai decided. "Go, have fun, just don't call me for bail money until tomorrow morning, okay?"

Laughing, Nao grabbed Mikoto's hand.

"Don't worry. I don't get caught."

She headed for the door, pulling the feral girl along in her wake. Kagutsuchi and Miroku recognozed their cue and zipped along after, just before the door closed, leaving Mai alone with Tate and Reito.

"Well," she said, a little...no, check that, a _lot_ nervous.

"So what's this all about?" Tate challenged.

"It's about us," she said. "You, me, Reito, and this thing that we've been doing for the last two years."

"Yeah?"

"Yes."

She licked her lips. This had been so much easier to think about than it was to actually do. Tate's look was openly challenging, still carrying with it some of yesterday's answer. Reito was, in his way, even worse, waiting patiently, not committing himself until there was something to commit to.

_You've fought monsters and armies and worse,_ Mai told herself, but she knew this was a different type of courage altogether.

"I've been thinking about some of the things you said yesterday, and what Reito said, too."

"Huh? What he said?"

"At dinner he basically agreed with you."

"Oh. Well, then."

"Perhaps we would be more comfortable if we sat down? This sounds like it might take a while," Reito interjected.

"Yeah, that's probably better," Mai said. She took the armchair for herself while the boys sat down on the sofa.

Settled, Mai took a deep breath and plunged on ahead.

"Two years ago, after all the dust cleared from the Festival, we all agreed on what we were doing. The two of you both wanted to go out with me, and I liked the both of you as well. That was the problem; I couldn't just say, 'Yuuichi, I like you better than Reito' or 'Reito, now that you're not possessed by an alien abomination I'd like to take up where we left off.'" She paused, then winced and added, "I'm sorry, Reito; I'm a little nervous and that came out really wrong."

Tate grinned hugely.

"I thought it sounded fine."

"Shut up, you."

"Yes," Reito said, "I'm supposed to be the expert smirker among Mai's boyfriends and I won't have you stepping into my role."

It seemed that Reito had rather decisively won that exchange.

"_Anyway_," Mai hauled the conversation back on topic, "we agreed that I would date you both and give you each a fair chance to court me before things got serious with either one of you. And now it's two years later and we're still doing it. You two are still interested in me, or else you'd have given up and gone on to someone else, and I'm still interested in both of you, or else I'd have made up my mind by now. But this can't go on this way forever; it isn't fair to any of us. We all have serious feelings, or we wouldn't still be waiting after two years, and we want to express those feelings, and have them returned."

She paused, then threw caution to the wind and added, "Mikoto was making a joke about whether one of yesterday's fights was because you tried to get too handsy, but over the last six months I've noticed that there's been a lot more kissing and touching between us. That's not bad, it's just one more thing that shows we're all tired of playing at being in love like kids would, and want something real, something that has a future to it."

Reito leaned back on the couch, folding his arms across his chest.

"That is a nice summation, Mai, but it does pose quite a question: how are we supposed to have a relationship like that when you keep us suspended like this? Any one of the three of us could choose to walk away, but you're the only one who can make a choice to move us forward."

"I know," Mai said, swallowing nervously. "And I have."

The boys glanced at each other.

"You thought, or at least started to think...that I was stringing you along, that I was happy just hanging out and having fun and having you dance attendance on me." If they hadn't, other people certainly had. Chie, for one, kept giving her the "you go, girl!" kind of encouragement, and Nao, being Nao, had more than once complained about Mai _not_ taking opportunities to play Tate and Reito off against each other to make them dance to her tune. "But it isn't true."

"Then what is true?" Reito said.

"What's true is that, Reito, you're charming, you're charismatic, you're so handsome you're almost pretty, like a work of art I can just stare at. You're clever and gregarious; when I see the way you use words to say multiple things or lead by implication without ever having to come out and say it to be perfectly understood, I'm amazed by how brilliant it is. You're intelligent and cultured, and it lets you open up my world to entirely new experiences, things that make me feel like I'm Cinderella at the ball. It's not things that are expensive or fancy, but that they're _magic_. And you're always so calm and self-assured and you know and can do so much that no matter the situation I'm sure you can handle it perfectly."

"That's funny, from where I'm sitting it's you who's the one who can do whatever she can set her mind to. The things I can do, yes, it's me who's done them with my own mind and body, but it comes from education, training. What you do comes from your own strength of heart, something that won't change no matter what area you apply it to."

It was hard for Mai not to blush at the compliment, which just went to make her point. Tate, too, was affected by the power of Reito's words, albeit in a different direction.

"Geez, you don't have to be a highly-educated genius like him to tell where this is going."

"Apparently you do, because I don't think Mai set all this up just to say that she's dumping you for me."

"You're right; I didn't."

She turned to face Yuuichi, leaning forward towards him. Because her chair was closer to his end of the couch, she might have been able to touch him if she'd stretched far enough.

"Yuuichi, you're a great guy too, and in a lot of different ways than Reito is. You're strong, and you're brave, and you're tough—not the kind of tough that means fighting, but willpower, the conviction to put yourself on the line for what's important, even when it seems like it's hopeless. You always make me feel warm and safe, not because I think you can handle everything for me or solve my problems, but because I know you'll be there for me, standing by my side and offering your support no matter what. And you offer me new perspectives, too, like yesterday, when I'd never have thought of rock climbing as something fun to try. And you've got a sense of humor; you can make me laugh and enjoy life when I get too stressed and serious."

"Oh. Well."

He rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. Emotional scenes with lots of gushing were never his forte.

"And this is my problem. If it was just as easy as saying one of you is great and one isn't, then this would be all over. But you're both great guys. I really do like you, and you make me really happy. And yet you're so different, like the sun and the moon, night and day—"

"Cake and ice cream?" Tate suggested, making Mai break into giggles (admittedly, probably as much because of the tension as any quality in the actual joke).

"Somebody took that 'sense of humor' thing seriously, I see."

"Face it, Kanzaki, guys who spend as much time putting on that smooth facade as you do can't make the girls laugh."

"As opposed to someone who spends his time playing the clown, for whom it comes all too easily."

"Hey!" Mai cut them off before they got out of hand. They were obviously feeling the tension, too, their rivalry coming to a head. "Please, just...let me finish, all right? Then you guys can fight all you want, or at least fight about what it is you're actually mad about."

"You imply that we _will_ be upset, and yet for right now you've only said complimentary things about us," Reito pointed out. "You've got me very curious about what's coming next."

"It's just that I'm trying to explain that I'm not stringing you along. Dating you was supposed to help me make up my mind, to show me whom I loved and which was just a crush, but instead all it's done was to make my feelings for you deepen, as I got to see more and more of you. Yuuichi, yesterday you talked about how I never said 'I love you,' and it's true that I haven't, but it's not because I didn't think it was fair to say it to one of you when I couldn't say I didn't feel that way about the other. If I said 'I love you, Yuuichi' or 'I love you, Reito,' isn't that the same thing as picking one of you and settling the matter?"

"You complained that she hasn't said 'I love you' yet?" Reito asked.

"Yeah, go ahead, rub it in. I was so stupid I didn't even think about what it was I was saying."

Reito shook his head.

"No, as a matter of fact, that isn't what I meant. You knew that the relationship had reached a point where 'I love you' meant something, and it was conspicuous by its absence. _We_ say it to _her_ freely, of course, because we have nothing to risk but our pride by doing so. But the key is that you were right; where we are now, we _should_ be hearing it back or something is wrong."

"Oh, well, in that case..." Tate preened a bit, which made a smile dance on Reito's lips.

Mai just nodded.

"Our feelings were advancing, but our relationship wasn't," she summed up. "We didn't get anywhere, because we were—I was—stuck in the middle of a stupid love triangle right out of a book or a shojo manga. Did I want to give my heart to the man who would keep me safe and grounded, who'd always be by my side but who wouldn't challenge me or take me beyond the bounds of my own world, my own life? Or did I want to choose the man who would turn me into Cinderella in a school uniform, but whom I couldn't always be sure would keep the magic going so I wouldn't turn back into a pumpkin at midnight?"

The boys shared a look, and a frown as well. It seemed neither one of them liked the comparison very much.

Well, she didn't either, so they were even.

"It's like I told Mikoto; I don't like that kind of love triangle. There's two things wrong with it."

"Two? Do tell."

"First, it's way too simplistic. Yuuichi's not just some boring stick-in-the-mud who'll never bring anything exciting into my life. Like I said, just yesterday he showed me something I'd never done or thought of doing before. And Reito's not always some impenetrable mystery that I'll never quite grasp, but can be sensitive and understanding. Again, just yesterday I was able to talk to him about the fight I'd just had with Yuuchi and what was really going on. Without his help I'd never have figured out what was going on between us."

"You told him about our fight?" Yuuichi yelped.

Mai crossed her arms over her chest.

"Yes, I did. It's my love life; I think it's fair that I can talk to my boyfriend about it! If it's any consolation, he agreed with you."

"Wait, he what?"

"It's been a strange couple of days," Reito observed.

"He agreed. It's why we're here now, the things that we've already talked about."

"Mai, why don't you tell us what is the second reason you hate this kind of love triangle, despite the fact that you're in one?"

Mai nodded.

"All right. It's because the choice itself is all wrong. The heroine is essentially told to pick A or B, risky or safe, fantasy or reality. Each man represents something about her, speaks to a different part of her heart. And it's a false di—um, dic, um..."

"Dichotomy?" Reito suggested.

"That's it. A false dichotomy. Because that's not what love is. Love isn't a metaphorical statement about a system of values where you're presented with a series of options and you select one that best suits your underlying life principles. Love is about building a relationship with another person. It's about how you feel when you're with them, and when you're apart, what you'd do for them and they way they touch you inside."

Mai leaned forward towards them.

"That's when I realized it: I haven't chosen because I don't _want_ to choose. I don't want to look at either one of you and tell you to go away, to throw out all the things you bring to this relationship. You're my dream guy, and I don't want to _settle_ for half of that."

"Wait a sec," Tate said, holding up his hand even though he wasn't actually interrupting. "You're telling me that you brought us over to tell us you've finally made a choice and now you're still not making one?"

"That isn't what I said," Mai told him. "I _am_ making a choice. I've realized that the person that I love is both of you."

"What, you mean like in some kind of harem?" Tate yelped.

"I believe it's what the French call a _menage-et-trois_," Reito pointed out less than helpfully. Tate's eyebrows shot up at that; he'd clearly heard the phrase before although Mai doubted it was in its original context of a three-person _household_ when he did. "Is that what you're proposing, Mai?"

_He's being entirely too calm about this, _Mai thought, a thread of fear twisting its way through her lower belly. She'd expected the flash of temper from Tate, but was never sure what Reito would say or do in such circumstances. _But then, if I could, I probably wouldn't be in this situation._ Because while a person might grow and change through experience, the idea that change could be urged upon them from outside was a losing proposition that had spelled unhappiness for far too many relationships.

"Yes, it is," she told him. "The man that I've fallen in love with, the man that is everything I need in a boyfriend, the man that I look at and can imagine a future with instead of just a few dates or a fantasy of a passionate night, isn't Yuuichi or Reito but rather 'Yuuichi-and-Reito.' If...if my heart is a puzzle, it's like you're each half of the missing piece. Or, more like three-fourths; there's a lot of overlap."

Tate let out a loud snort that was almost a growl.

"So you're telling me that if I want to be with you, I've got to share you with this smiling weasel?"

"And the smiling weasel has to share her with the wild baboon," Reito noted.

Mai clenched her fists in her lap. This was going about as badly as she'd expected it to.

"Please, just stop it, both of you."

"_Us_ stop it? You're the one who went and dropped this bombshell on us out of the blue! What did you expect, that we'd all be smiling and happy about it? 'Sure, I'm ready to take this relationship to the next level, but only if you're willing to share me with another guy? How would you like it if I told you that I would, but only if you'd have to share _me_ with...with...with Shiho or something!"

Tate's point was rather undercut by his example, because it made Reito burst into laughter. Tate colored and scratched the side of his head.

"Okay, maybe not the best example. But what I'm saying still stands. I just don't get it, what you're doing."

"I understand," Mai said. "I...I know that this must seem like an unreasonable answer, but it's the only one I have. I know that most people would think it's weird, what I'm feeling. Maybe somewhere out there, there's one man who would make me feel what...what I do for the two of you." Her voice was starting to choke up, and there was a lump in my throat that seemed to be strangling her. "Maybe you hate me now, or think I'm sick for wanting this, but the both of you deserve my honest answer, and this is the only one I have. I really have fallen in love with the two of you," she ended on something that sounded like a sob.

Her eyes stung, and she had to blink away tears.

"What? Geez, Mai, are you _crying_?"

"Well, what do you expect?" Reito said sardonically. "She just worked up the courage to make a love confession, and the reaction was not only for her to get turned down, but to as good as be called a freak for feeling the way she does."

"I didn't say that!" Tate yelped.

Mai wiped her eyes on the back of her sleeve.

"It's all right, Reito, really." And it wasn't like _he_ had committed to an answer yet, either. She could just believe that he'd done it on purpose: if Tate was doing all of the blustering and breaking up, then he, Reito was in position to present himself as the kind, friendly option.

Of course, she had no way of knowing that he was doing anything of the sort, but the mere fact that she could imagine it of him drove her to nip the idea in the bud (and also explained a lot about why she didn't find the prospect acceptable).

"Look, Reito, Yuuichi, I know this isn't an easy thing to hear, and I understand if you don't want to go along with it. If the idea isn't acceptable to you both, then I'll be sad, but it's better to know the truth so we can all get on with our lives and try to find someone else. But you both wanted my choice and, well...this is it." She spread her hands and smiled gamely, her heart still lodged in her throat.

There was a long pause, in which Mai could swear that she could hear her heart pounding like a triphammer. Tate was still staring at her, half a dozen different emotions wrestling with one another, while Reito was still enigmatic, the only sign anything was wrong the lack of his usual smile, indicating that he did not feel in control of the situation. Which he wasn't, not really. He had the power to reject Mai, but to accept required Tate, and vice versa.

Finally, Tate spoke.

"You're really serious about this, aren't you, Mai?" His voice was level, still a little bewildered, but without the yelps of surprise or howls of temper from before. "You want me, but only as part of a package deal with this guy." He jerked a thumb towards Reito.

"And vice versa," the other boy noted.

"Yeah. I gotta say," Tate agreed, "that if you'd told me two years ago this was where we'd end up, I'd just have walked away and tried to get over you." He rubbed his head sheepishly. "I mean, I've got a theme going here: Shiho wanted me all to herself to the point of going a little nuts over it, and you wouldn't have me on those terms at all. This isn't the kind of thing a guy dreams of, y'know? Well, unless he likes other guys, too, I suppose, but that's not my thing."

"I see," Mai murmured.

"But, y'know, that's if I known. But I didn't know, and I've had two years to fall in love with you, Mai. I really cared about you before, too, but that was something different. I don't want to lose you, but this is pretty damn weird, this whole two-for-one deal. I just don't know." He turned to Reito. "I don't suppose you have something to say, or are you going to let me keep doing all the heavy lifting?"

Reito just shrugged, and this time the smirk was back.

"When you keep diving right in, what's the point of me just repeating everything? I'd just look unimaginative."

Tate rolled his eyes.

"What happened to all that stuff about us being so different Mai needed both of us to make up a whole guy?"

"Well, if we're each three-fourths of her perfect man, then there's at least half a set of good qualities' worth of overlap. I would think that our feelings for her would have to be part of it."

"Yeah, that kind of makes sense." Tate blinked. "Quit doing that."

"Making sense?"

"Being so logical about this mess we're in."

Reito shook his head.

"I assure you, while I may be _calm_, I'm not in the slightest bit _logical_. Unless you mean using logic to reason out how best I can get what my heart wants."

Tate turned to Mai.

"Please, tell me that's part of the one-fourth he's missing."

"Um...I don't really have a list?" Mai said, distinctly confused as to how they'd ended up in the middle of seemingly random banter. It was as if they'd fallen into some kind of male bonding thing right in the middle of the discussion.

Maybe they had. They _were_ two men in a shared circumstance, after all.

"Well then," Reito chimed in, "if you would like to hear what my logic tells me, then I'll take the pressure off you this once. It tells me that a successful polyamorous relationship requires love, maturity, and a particular attitude concerning jealousy or its lack, and above all a tremendous amount of communication and patience. What Mai is asking is difficult and unlikely to be successful. On the other hand, I don't know what would happen unless we try."

"Wait, what?" The response was a chorus of surprise.

He shrugged, palms up.

"I'm merely saying that just because I don't _think_ that I have the necessary mindset to be part of a successful three-person relationship doesn't mean that it isn't worth trying if it means that I might get to be with the woman I love."

Mai's eyes widened. Her lips parted to say something, make some kind of coherent response, but it froze halfway out. Tate gave his rival a long, measuring look.

"Do you seriously mean that? Or are you just saying it because you figure I'll bail out and then Mai's left with the memory that _I_ was the ass who messed things up for her and _you_ gave her warm and fuzzy feelings 'cause you were willing to try?"

"That sounds positively Machiavellian, even for me."

"Yeah, well, whatever it is, it ain't going to work. If you can suck up your planet-sized ego and give being with Mai a fair shake, then I'm sure as hell not going to chicken out."

_Wait...Did Reito...did he just bait Yuuichi into...? Or did Yuuichi use that as an excuse to not have to say he wanted to do it without having to be all mushy and "unmanly"?_ Mai's mind reeled at the subtleties. _Men are weird!_

And now, it seemed, she officially had two of them.

She looked back and forth from one to the other.

"Are you two...are you really saying what it sounds like?" Even after what they'd already said, she could barely bring herself to ask the question.

"Yeah, I am," Tate said. "I'm willing to give it a shot. I mean, I've been dating you for two years with this guy hanging around. At least now the relationship's going somewhere."

"And what better time to experiment with more creative relationships than college?" Reito noted.

"I...I..." Choking up again, Mai could barely get the words out, and she found herself in the weird position of having tears streaming from her eyes while beaming hugely enough to make her jaw ache. "_You guys!_"

She all but flung herself out of her seat towards them, and they both sprang up to catch her so that her left arm came up around Tate and her right around Reito, Tate's own arm coming around her upper back and Reito's her waist.

"I really do love you, you know," she said, nuzzling into their shoulders. It was a strange feeling to be held by them both like this, different than being embraced by one or the other, but it felt right to her, _complete_ somehow. She had no idea, really, if this was something that could last, if the three of them could make the compromises and shifts in perspective necessary to make the three-cornered relationship work on a permanent basis, but at the moment, that didn't matter. The future would bring what it would bring, but for right now Mai was happy in the arms of the man she loved.

And happily ever after had to start somewhere.

~X X X~

_A/N: Most people who follow my stories (or read my reviews) know that in fact, I'm a Mai/Reito shipper when it comes to choosing among Mai's various romantic options. Which means that I've just completed writing a fic in which the conclusion isn't what I, the writer, would actually root for at the start of the series! I guess this is what they mean when people talk about characters running off and doing what they want, because when I started thinking about finally wrapping this plotline in the D&amp;KOT setting, this seemed like the only course that made sense. The idea that Mai would stay with both men for two years if there was a choice to be made between them made no sense for me. And honestly, the idea that _they_ were putting up with it for that length of time without having serious feelings back at her, _and _the potential tolerance to at least try... Meanwhile, rather than "happily ever after," I chose an outcome of "let's give it a shot and see what happens," since it seemed completely unrealistic otherwise that people would have such a paradigm shift that it would make it all smiling and happy forever and always in the course of three chapters!_


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